Ben Stiller stars as Eddie
–
a San
Francisco
sporting goods shop owner who is down on his luck when it comes to the
ladies. On
Valentine’s Day, he ends up
meeting Lila (Malin Ackerman), which leads to a whirlwind romance and
marriage. As they
head off for the honeymoon, Eddie
starts to see a different, more frightening, more psychotic side of
Lila, and
meets a new woman at the resort, Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), who might
be a
better match.
Will Eddie end up with
Miranda? Will Lila
become normal
again? Is Eddie
just blowing it all out
of proportion?
The Heartbreak Kid is an
average comedy with moments of hilarity, but more moments of blah. Co-writers/directors Peter
and Bobby Farrelly
revived the gross out humor that has become more commonplace in
comedies over
the last 10 years, but The Heartbreak Kid shows they have been
surpassed by the
next generation of outrageous comedy auteurs, led by Judd Apatow, who
has added
some heart and soul to the craziness in ways the Farrellys want to in
this
movie, but fall short in doing so.
You can feel the Farrellys
and the other co-writers (Scot Armstrong, Leslie Dixon and Kevin
Barnett, based
on the screenplay by Neil Simon, who I’m sure never intended
to include
bestiality in the final product like we have here) struggling to give
Eddie
some justifiable reasons for dumping his newlywed bride, and attempting
to
light a spark between the groom and this new Miranda girl, but it was
hard to
find something resembling chemistry and excitement in that part of the
story,
and it’s even harder to care for Eddie’s plight
because he’s being duplicitous
with his new wife, and the woman he supposedly cares about. Because
of these failures, the audience is supposed to take most plot twists
for
granted because the writers want them to happen in the story, rather
than make
us feel it in our hearts and brains.
It's too hard to root for a guy who is acting this way,
especially a fortysomething with gray hair who should know better.
Worst of all, The Heartbreak Kid feels like a 90-minute movie stretched out to 2 hours for no good
reason. The
Farrellys take much too long with every
aspect of the movie from the original courtship between Lila and Eddie
to all
of the troubles that pop up on the honeymoon to the rambling developing
love
between Miranda and Eddie, which isn’t very compelling. Carlos Mencia shows up in
a meaningless role
that could have been one good funny cameo, instead of several scenes
that are
hit and miss, while Jerry Stiller kind of feels out of place and a bit
forced
as the foulmouthed, wild man father.
The audience gets some very
funny shocking bits, but they are few and far between.
For most of the film, you feel like everyone
is kind of going through the motions trying to find what would be
shocking, and
completely miscalculating what would be sweet. Stick around through the
credits for a couple additional scenes, but these just ruin the good
last scene
which would have left the audience walking out of the theater with a
better
laugh.
1
½
Waffles (Out of 4)
The Heartbreak Kid is
rated R for strong sexual content, crude humor, language and
nudity.
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2007 - WaffleMovies.com